On June 28th, 2022, Jennifer Poston of Charleston, South Carolina, arrived home from work. Jennifer’s husband, Robert Keene, was in the kitchen eating dinner with the couple’s two young children. Suddenly, Robert went into cardiac arrest and fell on the floor of the family’s kitchen. “She said she heard me drop, and knew something was wrong,” said Robert.
Jennifer ran to the kitchen and swiftly began performing CPR on her husband. “My wife immediately started CPR. She broke ten of my ribs, so she did it right – saved my life,” Robert recalled. The couple’s 12-year-old daughter called 911, enabling the first responders to arrive quickly and rush Robert to the hospital. Robert credits his survival to his wife and daughter’s swift, heroic actions. “I woke up in the ICU and they said that her doing CPR is what saved my life,” said Robert.
On October 17th, 2023, the Red Cross of South Carolina was honored to recognize Jennifer Poston, awarding her with the prestigious American Red Cross Lifesaving Award, Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action. The Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action is given to individuals, like Jennifer, who step up in an emergency situation and help save a life. Recipients of this award exemplify the mission of the Red Cross to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies.
“CPR is a crucial skill to have because it saved my life. You never know what can happen. Anything can happen at any time,” said Robert. “It strengthened our bond even more. It’s one of those things that you think you’ll never have to go through, but it happened. She saved my life.”
More than 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest annually, but sadly, only 9% survive. Every second counts when responding to a cardiac arrest and knowing CPR and other lifesaving skills is crucial. To take a American Red Cross lifesaving course, go to www.redcross.org/take-a-class.
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